(June 17, 2008) Building on its role as a leader in environmentally sound printing practices, Quad/Graphics now has certifications from the world's three leading forest management programs: the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). Quad/Graphics was the first national commercial printer to receive chain-of-custody certification from the FSC in 2004 and, now, with the SFI and PEFC certifications, Quad/Graphics vastly expands the pool of forest-certified paper suppliers from which its clients can choose. "We are proud to receive these key certifications in all 10 of our core printing plants," said Joel Quadracci, President & CEO of Quad/Graphics. "This achievement affirms our efforts to support internationally recognized, science-based standards for best practices in forest management. It also offers important benefits to our customers by opening the door to new, worldwide networks of forest-certified suppliers."

PEFC certification provides an assurance mechanism to purchasers of wood and paper products that they are promoting the sustainable management of forests.

In addition to the [postal] pricing changes, there is one content rule change affecting the periodicals class: a modification to the "loose enclosures" rule change to permit the enclosure of unbound "publisher's letters" with a periodical. As many ABM members may know, there are very strict rules covering loose enclosures in bound publications, and if you run afoul of those rules, the enclosure is treated as a separate Standard mail piece (unless you mark it as or can talk USPS into treating it as a "ride-along" piece). Therefore, a "publisher's letter" dealing with issues such as frequency or content of the publication has been deemed to be a publisher's own advertising and thus not a permissible Periodicals insert. Through the Periodicals Advisory Group (in which ABM and several members are active participants), the industry and the Postal Service reached a reasonable resolution. According to the USPS's new ruling, "mailers are now entitled to include a publisher's printed letter, including facsimile signature, as a permissible loose enclosure with a Periodicals publication, provided the printed letter is limited to the publisher promoting the publication; or announcing or describing changes to the publication (e.g. title, format, frequency, terms or conditions of a subscription); or other business of the publication, as long as the printed letter includes no other advertising for the publisher or any other party." Because there were immediate concerns about whether mentioning a Web site would be considered permissible "other business of the publication," or impermissible "advertising," David Straus, ABM's Washington counsel, obtained clarification from the Postal Service for ABM members. According to that clarification, there are four typical scenarios in which a Web site might be mentioned: 1) Visit our Web site at www.XXX.com 2) www.XXX.com 3) "Go to www.XXX.com to subscribe or renew your subscription" 4.) "Visit www.XXX.com to see our other products or services" The Postal Service now says that options 1, 2 and 3 may be included in the letter, while option 4 may not. There would first have to be a publisher's letter, of course, about the publication, then 1 or 2 would be ignored as innocuous. Scenario 3 would be considered related, while 4 would be advertising for other business of the publisher.

In 2007, Great American Cleanup volunteers collected 200 million pounds of litter and debris; planted 4.6 million trees, flowers and bulbs; cleaned 178,000 miles or roads, streets and highways; and diverted more than 70.6 million plastic (PET) bottles and more than 2.2 million scrap tires from the waste stream.